Holy Sand

toopilot said:

Well was out putting hours 3-4 on my bike two weekends ago. My bike wandered sooooo bad in the sand it was horible. I have a 2010 FE450. Anyway I felt imbarrased when I trade bikes with my brother and he had to give it back. Brand New bike and since I ride in MI almost all the trails are sandy. I am going to install a steering damper on it but I would like to get it dialed in first then install the damper. This bike must be better than that what can I do and where should I start?
Thanks,
Tim

Click to expand...

I had the same issue on hour #1 on my bike. Spring it for your weight and set the sag and clickers per the owners manual. You will no longer be embarassed and you will probably not get your bike back from the red rider if you should trade again.

Had the same issue...As noted above Suspension is the key!!!!!!!!!!

Same here. I felt totally out of control. I had the "correct" springs, but no custom re-valving. I traded bikes with a friend that has a KTM 530 that has been tuned and with a steering stabilizer. He is about my same weight. I could not believe the difference. For the first time in my life I felt somewhat in control in the sand.

I then sent my suspension to Dale EO. He replaced the rear linear rate spring with a progressive, and re-valved for my weight and riding style. Now the front end is stable in the whoops and the sand. The rear end swims around in the sand, but I think that is due to my tires. I have DOT approved Dunlop 606, which are pretty stiff. When the rear tire wears out I am going to switch to a DOT approved trials tire.

I also added a steering damper. This is a first for me, so I may not have it dialed in properly yet. It wasn't obvious that it was helping in the sand, but I felt much less fatigued after riding rocky trails.

As other have stated, get the suspension dialed in first. A damper mask the stability problem, but proper suspension will fix it. Sag settings seem to be more important on the Bergs, so if you might play with that some.

berger said:

toopilot said:

Well was out putting hours 3-4 on my bike two weekends ago. My bike wandered sooooo bad in the sand it was horible. I have a 2010 FE450. Anyway I felt imbarrased when I trade bikes with my brother and he had to give it back. Brand New bike and since I ride in MI almost all the trails are sandy. I am going to install a steering damper on it but I would like to get it dialed in first then install the damper. This bike must be better than that what can I do and where should I start?
Thanks,
Tim

Click to expand...

I had the same issue on hour #1 on my bike. Spring it for your weight and set the sag and clickers per the owners manual. You will no longer be embarassed and you will probably not get your bike back from the red rider if you should trade again.

Click to expand...

Let me add to this.
The respring made a dramatic improvement. 2 years later I sent the suspension to DaleEO for a revalve and that took it to the next level. With the revalve he goes to a progressive rate spring as well.